Meet the Tolstoy you never knew! This compact, yet surprisingly broad look at the life and work of Tolstoy spans from one of his earliest stories to one of his last, looking at works that made him famous and others that made him notorious.

From Farfaronov's Mountain to Alyosha the Pot, with a bit of War and Peace and Anna Karenina stuffed in the middle, this is a wonderful sampling of the master's works. There are also chapters on "Tolstoy the Didact" (showing how he tried to use literature to teach), and "Tolstoy the Outrageous" (where some of his more controversial ideas are examined). Finally, we have selected one passage from Anna Karenina and compared how it was translated differently over the past century.

Best of all, the entire volume is presented in English and [accented] Russian side by side. Ideal for a student wanting to improve her Russian and get acquainted with the full breadth of Tolstoy's work and style.